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US Midterm Elections
President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year's midterms, saying justices who opposed him were "not the people I interviewed." His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally. On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the US Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections - and said their systems were already secure and accurate. The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the ...
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's mail ballot restrictions for now, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting in the midterm elections already underway. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they have used for years. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the brief order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favour of the Trump administration later. The Trump administration had asked the court, once again at the centre of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress. The case has major implications because nearly one-third of the country votes by mail. Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina
US Vice President J D Vance took the stage on Thursday on the second and final night of the Republicans' midterm convention in Dallas, the party knowing that history is not on its side this election season but counting on President Donald Trump to propel voters to protect their House and Senate majorities. With Vance taking the primetime speaking slot just ahead of the president, the convention is also teeing up a potential post-Trump future. Vance has not said whether he will run for the White House, and Trump has yet to name an heir apparent, but the crowd roared "JD! JD!" when he stepped to the microphone. "It is pretty cool to hear a crowd that is this fired up chant your name, so go ahead and do it again," Vance said, and the audience obliged. Republicans are rallying their voters in the midterms while some are also thinking about the next presidential election two years away. "We've got a deep bench," said Bruce Johnston, 62, who drove 29 hours with his son from Delaware to
The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Monday in a case over President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be implemented before the fast-approaching midterm elections. The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump's order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The US Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes with some states beginning to send mail ballots to voters in just a few weeks. The court's conservative majority didn't decide the legality of Trump's order, instead ruling that the states did not have the legal right to challenge it. "The Court's disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell," the majority wrote in an unsigned order. The Supreme Court's .
President Donald Trump has made clear in recent weeks that he's willing to use the vast powers of his office to prevent his party from losing control of Congress in next year's midterm elections. Some of the steps Trump has taken to intervene in the election are typical, but controversial, political maneuvers taken to his trademark extremes. That includes pushing Republican lawmakers in Texas and other conservative-controlled states to redraw their legislative maps to expand the number of US House seats favourable to the GOP. Others involve the direct use of official presidential power in ways that have no modern precedent, such as ordering his Department of Justice to investigate the main liberal fundraising entity, ActBlue. The department also is demanding the detailed voter files from each state in an apparent attempt to look for ineligible voters on a vast scale. And on Monday, Trump posted a falsehood-filled rant on social media pledging to lead a movement to outlaw voting ..
Russia's war in Ukraine and anti-regime protests in Iran limited both Moscow and Tehran's ability to try to influence or interfere in the recent U.S. midterm elections, a senior American military official said. U.S. agencies were on high alert before November's vote for potential cyberattacks or foreign influence operations, particularly after adversaries were judged by intelligence agencies to have meddled in the last two presidential elections. But there was little sign of disruption in the midterms. I was surprised by the lack of activity we saw from the Russians, the Iranians, or the Chinese, said Army Maj. Gen. William Hartman, who leads the U.S. Cyber National Mission Force, which partners with the National Security Agency in detecting and stopping election intrusions, on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been mired in a prolonged war with tens of thousands of casualties since he ordered an invasion of Ukraine in February. And Iran's leaders are waging a bloody ...
A key member of President Joe Biden's economic team, Cecilia Rouse, will leave his administration in the spring, a White House official said Friday. Rouse took academic leave from Princeton University to serve as chair of Biden's Council of Economic Advisers, and she plans to return to there. The official was not authorised to publicly discuss personnel changes and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The pending departure is the first to be disclosed since the midterm elections as Biden's term reaches its halfway point, often a time of transition for any presidential administration. Bloomberg was first to report Rouse's planned departure, and it said Brian Deese, director of Biden's National Economic Council, plans to depart next year. Rouse, a labour economist, was the first Black woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers. Deese is scheduled to participate in a meeting with Biden and business and labor leaders at the White House on Friday afternoon. It's the Democratic ...
Republicans won control of the US House on Wednesday, returning the party to power in Washington and giving conservatives leverage to blunt President Joe Biden's agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a threadbare majority will pose immediate challenges for GOP leaders and complicate the party's ability to govern. More than a week after Election Day, Republicans secured the 218th seat needed to flip the House from Democratic control. The full scope of the party's majority may not be clear for several more days -- or weeks -- as votes in competitive races are still being counted. But they are on track to cobble together what could be the party's narrowest majority of the 21st century, rivalling 2001, when Republicans had just a nine-seat majority, 221-212 with two independents. That is far short of the sweeping victory Republicans predicted going into this year's midterm elections, when the party hoped to reset the agenda on Capitol Hill by capitalising on economic challenges
Democrats kept control of the Senate on Saturday, repelling Republican efforts to retake the chamber and making it harder for them to thwart President Joe Biden's agenda. The fate of the House was still uncertain as the GOP struggled to pull together a slim majority there. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's victory in Nevada gave Democrats the 50 seats they needed to keep the Senate. Her win reflects the surprising strength of Democrats across the US this election year. Seeking reelection in an economically challenged state that has some of the highest gas prices in the nation, Cortez Masto was considered the Senate's most vulnerable member, adding to the frustration of Republicans who were confident she could be defeated. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed victory on Saturday night, tweeting, Your Senate Democratic Majority! With the results in Nevada now decided, Georgia is the only state where both parties are still competing for a Senate seat. Democratic incumbent Sen
